Fuin Kenkyu Shotai
by outlawpoet
Summary: Time Travel is harder than it looks. A desperate research programme (by the Fuin Kenkyu Shotai - Sealing Research Group) in a devastated Konoha results in the ability to send back a message, but it is received by an unexpected person. Crackfic-ish, no apologies.
1. Chapter 1

_**Tenten pretty much has only three attributes, she's good at sealing techniques(for her age), using ninja tools, and she wants to be like Tsunade. What if a perfect storm of circumstances led to those attributes leading to utter chaos?**_

* * *

In the wake of Nagato's attack on Konoha, few would blame you for panicking. The village destroyed, many shinobi incapacitated, the Hokage disabled and unlikely to recover, war on the horizon, Konoha was in deep trouble. But when the person panicking is in a newly formed research group, the Fuin Kenkyu Shotai, with access to the whole spectrum of forbidden and experimental techniques, and no oversight to control them, sometimes inadvisable things happen.

Formed after the death of Jiraiya, the FKS (Sealing Research Group) was Tsunade's reaction to the loss of his great fuinjutsu expertise, and an attempt to train people who might be able to take up his legacy. Unfortunately with Tsunade down after the Invasion of Pain, the Fuin Kenkyu Shotai is left with no guidance, but broad access to the stored jutsu and seal knowledge of Konoha. Danzo and Kakashi, the two people trying to pick up the pieces, don't know very much about them and largely ignore them, worsening the situation.

The team leader, an ANBU Captain way beyond his depth, decides that the only way to recover from the disasters that have plagued Konoha is to prevent them from happening in the first place. Drawing on records from the Second and Fourth Hokage, who both developed Space-Time Ninjutsu, they develop a jutsu capable of piercing the veil of time, and sending an object backwards in time, changing their own future.

But like all Space-Time Jutsu, the requirements scale as to the size of the object moved, and the distance required. Reasoning that a person would be too costly, they decide to send a message back in time as far as possible. So a miniscule special scroll is developed with every critical bit of intelligence, newly developed jutsu, and strategic information, and sent as far back as humanly possible, 13 years, taking the life of three team members and four ritual participants from complete chakra depletion.

The ANBU head of the Fuin Kenkyu Shotai himself collapses soon after, content that with this titanic effort. His world will disappear, replaced by one in which the Hokage could use the precious information to change the past.

* * *

UNFORTUNATELY, IN THE PAST:

A tiny scroll, it's immense stores of information contained by hundreds of overlapping seals, appears in the peaceful village of Konoha, three years before the Uchiha Massacre, simply inscribed, "To Senju Tsunade".

Tsunade is: NOT HERE.

The village was completely destroyed by Pain, so the position was approximate, missing the Hokage Tower by several hundred feet, falling to a tiny roadside park and lying unnoticed in a tree. Its complex seeking seals flare into being, but Tsunade is hundreds of miles away being a depressing alcoholic, so they find nothing to latch onto. Frustrated, and mistakenly not designed to do anything else (the panicked seal designers having forgotten or never known that the Slug Princess would not set foot in Konoha for years to come), the seals continue to struggle to draw the scroll to its intended recipient.

THE NEXT DAY:

A young (just five years old) Tenten, her tiny brain filled with stories of the Lady Tsunade, visits the park with her orphan cohorts. Maniacally declaring herself to be "Tsunade, hero kunoichi of Konoha," she regales her stunned fellow orphans with her exploits, throwing hoarded garden slugs at terrified bullies, righting manufactured injustice, and demonstrating a surprisingly deadly aim with "kunai"(rocks, mostly). After the group of orphans, in a rare show of solidarity, physically prevent further happenings of heroism at their expense, she contents herself by climbing the tall trees of the park, "scouting" for her fellow Konoha Nin.

That is where she finds a tiny scroll, labeled "To Senju Tsunade". Her eyes filling with perfect glee, she declares, "I am Senju Tsunade!" and reaches for the message. Like so many smart people, the seal designers outwitted themselves. Knowing so much about seals, they distrusted the common blood and heritage seals most used to protect messages to a single person, instead building a much more complicated security system involving invoked genjutsu and mental techniques that investigated the mind of the user, searching for deceit, identity concealing jutsu, body-possession, and controlling genjutsu on the bearer. The seals flare to life, probing her chakra and mind, finding only a perfectly innocent mind, with maniacal focus, no deceit, and the child-like absolute belief in her identity as Tsunade, hero kunoichi of Konoha.

The scroll unrolls in a blinding flash, the seals transferring their stored information in a bewildering torrent of memory jutsu, chakra sealing, and quickly crawling text. Tenten falls out of the tree like a stone. She lands in a bush with a resounding thump, her head still resonating with the deadly payload of every secret, dossier, and jutsu the FKS could jam into the scrolls.

"...A-Awesome", Tenten gasped, before finally submitting to the darkness.

* * *

Nono, the "Mother" in charge of the orphans, mused on the marked change in Tenten. A very boisterous girl, she had suddenly taken to spending much of her time with the ragged scrolls and books available in the orphanage playroom. Expanding beyond her well established hero-worship of the Lady Tsunade (which Nono approved of, in her quiet way), she had taken to studying what preparatory material was available for a ninja career. All orphans in Konoha were expected to be tested in turn for suitability for the Academy, although with the end of the last war and the subsequent dropping of pressure for new shinobi, less might be expected at their young age, many passed over for now or allowed to enter later.

Nonetheless, policy was still to begin testing early. The wartime heroes like Kakashi and Maito Gai (five and seven years old, respectively at their graduation) had taught Konoha to look for the seeds of genius even in the very young.

While Tenten had little instruction, and no known genetic history of shinobi behind her, Nono could sense her undeveloped chakra flaring, and see her rapid eyes on the preparatory texts. She hoped the Academy would be everything the young spitfire wanted. To be a genius was a burden, but it would honor the orphanage and the village that had sheltered her. It was said that Lady Tsunade was traveling, seeking new and greater medical ninjutsu, strangely absent from her victorious and adoring village. There were many rumors as to what the truth was, but they all agreed that she had not been seen in Konoha since the end of the war. Perhaps Tenten was reacting to the universal acclaim Senju Tsunade evoked, and the absence that was so keenly felt. She hoped her dream would not lead her into pain.

* * *

Tenten, curled in the corner of the orphanage playroom, read the Story of the Daring Kunoichi again. A simplistic tale, clearly meant to convey the basics of chakra use to kids without boring them to tears. Her thoughts raced. She felt her dual identity as the powerless orphan Tenten and the godlike Sannin Tsunade very keenly. At times she felt like she almost had all the knowledge and powers of a high ranking ninja of Konoha, but she was reminded like this that she was lacking even the most basic grounding in how the fundamentals of the ninja way functioned. What WAS chakra exactly? Why could she clearly visualize a ninjutsu of terrible power, a combined Earth-Wind Technique that was derived in her imagination from a towering monster of sand, yet be unable to name the elements of a simple bunshin? Clearly there was some discontinuity in her identity.

Perhaps attending the Academy would clarify it. So she was studying fiercely for the Examiner she knew would soon be visiting the Orphanage to test the children. If she could convince him to let her attend the academy, a whole new world of material would open up to her. She could feel the solution to her confusion there somewhere, waiting.

* * *

The Academy Examiner came to the orphanage not expecting much. The Konoha Orphanage, like most of its kind, were for those with no support mechanism. Talented children of ninja who were orphaned were often fostered by allied clans or families, even those without any preexisting bonds were snapped up by sponsors if they came from families known to be strong in some way.

The remaining children had two strikes then against them. First, they had no known pedigree. Naturally, chakra varying greatly between people was one of the supporting factors of the great families and clans of ninja. A Hyuuga or Uchiha has comparatively vast native reserves as a gift of their heritage, their coils smooth and well-developed. And second was simply one of upbringing; no one was supporting these orphans in the establishment of the lifelong habits of ninja, the physical training, memory exercises, cultural conditioning, and conscious control of bodily functions that, more fundamental than jutsu or ninja tools, truly made a shinobi.

Some of the children would by now have found their chakra and picked up enough background information and physical capability to pass the initial screening; particularly the older ones, their heads buzzing with the Konohan culture, a village devoted entirely to ninja life. They would most likely spend a few years in the Academy before becoming members of the mainstays of Konoha's forces, the Genin and Chuunin Corps, solid, dependable nin whose lack of family name would be instantly understood and quietly respected. An orphan cared for by Konoha coming to serve it in the field was only proper.

He set up his materials in a cramped spare room at the Orphanage, some scrolls, a roster of children, and a few practice weapons. Asking the matron to send in the youngest of the children he planned to test today.

-

Tenten got the signal from Nono, her instructions echoing in her little head. "Impress him as a potential ninja, little one". She gathered her meagre scavenged ninja tools, a scroll, several conveniently shaped rocks, a kunai she discovered half buried in the dirt, discarded white bandages wound around her hands to provide padding. She had managed to sneak away during the day sometime ago, consulting her mysterious memories for an list of training grounds that had required cleanup and repair for equipment use. She had discovered that ninja tended to clean up after themselves very well, but in the more destructive exchanges, some tools could get buried or flung far enough to be missed afterwards.

She paused in front of the imposing closed door, behind which waited the man who would decide if she was ninja enough to attend the Academy this year. She gathered her chakra.

Tenten was terrified. She knew that scraps she found on the ground and mysterious dreams about the future didn't make her a ninja. But Tsunade wasn't afraid of anything.

* * *

The Examiner was marking the previous kid, an engaging but extremely childish 4 year old blonde he sensed he ought to recognize from somewhere. No conscious chakra control or obvious academic ability that would suggest early admittance, but he sensed great latent chakra and seemingly boundless physical energy ought to lead to him passing in a few years. The first of the five year olds-

Bang! He looked sharply up as a three foot tall dark-haired girl kicked in the door. She seemed to hesitate as it shivered on its hinges against the wall from the force of the blow, but as her eyes found him, she drew herself up. Lifting a finger to point at him accusingly.

"BULLSEYE!" the little girl roared, "I AM HERE TO PROVE I AM A NINJA!"

The man had just begun to react to this when Tenten, perhaps sensing he had little to contribute to the conversation, lit her eyes on the practice weapons on the table. Her chubby hands dipped to her little bag, as she crouched to leap onto it.

"Hello, I-" the man began, trailing off as he dodged a barrage of rocks that would have dented his forehead, standing up and back from his seat as the little girl vaulted over the chair and onto the small table. He brought his hands up in a hopefully calming position as the girl leveled one of his practice tanto at his face.

"I will become a great kunoichi, a hero of this village." she informed him levelly. "Like TSUNADE!"

He could sense the chakra in her legs as she dove off the table into him, practice tanto leaving red marks on his arms and hands as long ingrained habit moved them into the least damaging positions to block the wildly swinging weapon. He noted somewhere in the back of his mind that her strikes greatly resembled the illustrated poses in the Standard Konoha Basic Taijutsu Manual, of which this orphanage had a copy. Along with the Regulation Handbook and Scroll of E-Rank Techniques, these were texts given to every Academy Student, so there were always in good supply in a place like this.

He moved throughout the room, doing his best to keep the blazing little aspiring kunoichi in front of him. Realizing she didn't have the height to swing the tanto properly, she returned to the rocks, filling the air with stinging projectiles, as he thanked the spirits he had worn gloves, he began smoothly catching them.

Wondering how to salvage the situation, it was clear the little girl thought she needed to defeat him somehow to prove she was capable of being a ninja. He began thinking of how to make the best of the already offtrack evaluation just as Tenten(that was her name), frustrated that her rocks were harmlessly deflected, let out a scream of pure fury, emptying her bag of rocks in a final rattling impact against his crossed arms. As he brought his hands back down to rest in a low guard, her own came into a surprising position.

_Is she-_

Tenten had done this successfully just twice, but the situation was perfect. A small chair was behind the Examiner, about her size, his guard was strong, but set in her direction, and his feet were flat on the ground. She focused her chakra in her core as she forced her hands into the awkward shapes._ Ram, Boar, Ox, Dog, Snake! __**Kawarimi no Jutsu**__!_

The inexpert jutsu tunneled her vision as she was pulled across the room violently, the chair flying into the opposite wall. But as expected she was safely behind the instructor, having bypassed his guard and better the chair crashing into the wall seemed to have drawn his eye. She gathered all the chakra she had available into her arm, remembering Tsunade's reports on the attempts to duplicate her destructive strength. Sadly her dreams had no answers, but even the failures were instructive, the dossiers she imagined reading comparing attempts to '_mere chakra reinforcement_'. She knew from experience with intense focus she could bury her fist into the dirt with a thud that without chakra would have broken her hand. She swiped at the backs of the Examiner's knees desperately, knowing he would soon be facing in her direction.

The situation was deteriorating rapidly, the Examiner felt. A chakra-laden fist actually brushed the back of his leg, sending a shiver up his spine as he instinctively flicked up to the corner of the room, his hand dipping to a kunai pouch that didn't hang at his belt today. This needed to be more of a test and less of a duel with a 3 foot ping pong ball. "What is the fourth Shinobi Rule?" he barked on a sudden impulse.

Tentent froze momentarily, "A shinobi must always put the mission first!" she squawked back at him, gathering what was left of her chakra and bringing it to her knees, for a final leap up at the Examiner now hanging above her. Her fists clenched, she settled on a low strike at his face to dislodge him. As he settled on the other side of the room, she bounced back, drawing her precious hoarded kunai in a high guard as she rocketed into him, catching by surprise. He had time to push the point of the kunai past his head with a high block before her weight struck him in the face and shoulders, toppling them both to the ground.

"Bullseye!" she crowed, "one hundred shots, one hundred hits!"

Her legs were entangled in his arms in an awkward way, so she contented herself with raising the kunai for another strike at his face. He rolled expertly, depositing her on the ground and rising to his feet.

"Who is the ultimate authority in the village of Konoha?" he said.

She scowled, getting clumsily to her feet. "The Sandaime Hokage!"

He grabbed the small target against the wall and held it in front of him suggestively. Immediately brightening, she snatched the practice senbon they had spilled to the floor and hurled them with commendable accuracy. In the small room, she was only seven feet away, so her senbon clinked against each other in the center of the target. He put the target against the wall again, and gave the obviously tiring girl a reassuring smile.

"I think you have done very well, for such a young girl.." he began, as her finely honed detector of patronizing tones narrowed her eyes.

She fingered her last secret, hidden in her shirt. A torn scrap of paper with a seal she found and recognized from the Regulation Handbook's four described Standard Seals as a simple storage seal for inanimate objects. She had painstaking pasted the seal into a blank scroll, and through trial and error discovered what could be placed within in it. It would have to be her final technique.

She spun around, slinging the final senbon she had hidden in her hand at the Examiner to distract him as she struggled to quickly unstick the end the scroll. Throwing the center spindle and holding the free end in her teeth, it spiralled towards him, unrolling just as she'd practiced. "**UNSEAL**!", she screamed, her hands moving through the simple_ Ox, Hare_ sequence: "**Tenten-style Dirt Destroyer!**"

At this point the Examiner abandoned all pretense of decorum, his dive for the window not quite saving him from the stream of rocks and dirt that sprayed from the much abused scroll, quickly filling his side of the small room. The dirt and rocks filling his mouth, he came to rest half-buried in a soft pile. Spitting and struggling to free his legs, he opened his eyes just in time to see the little girl carefully draw the practice tanto across his neck, the inked edges leaving two red marks up and down his throat on both sides. He knew from long experience it would take two days for the marks to completely fade, even with scrubbing, and sighed, thinking of the conversations ahead of him at the Academy.

He looked at the panting little girl, who was waiting, trembling, with serious eyes on her knees, covered in dirt in the thoroughly destroyed little room. He could hear raised voices in the hall, debating whether to open the door to check on the noise. He suspected Tenten's name was being raised on the side of Not Opening the Door.

Wordlessly, he reached in his vest for a storage scroll. Unsealing a copy each of the newest Regulation Handbook, Scroll of E-Rank Techniques, and Standard Konoha Taijutu Manual, he handed the stack to the little girl, along with a practice pouch of training kunai, scrolls, inkpens, target shuriken, and packet of rope and wire.

"Tenten, do you Love the village and hope to help preserve peace and prosperity?" he intoned.

"Yes", she said without hesitation.

"Do you Have a mind that will not yield, able to endure hard training and work?"

"Yes"

"Are you healthy in mind and body?"

"Yes!" she said.

"You start in two weeks."

-

_Trainee displays conscious control of chakra, command of background knowledge of Shinobi Regulations, and above average weapons skills for Academy Student. Chakra capacity low: stamina training recommended, Investigation for fuinjutsu talent and tactical insight scheduled. Provisional Access to E-Rank materials granted, training tools issued. Enrolled in Standard Academy Program, notation for possible accelerated placement pending psychological evaluation._

-

AN: Here we go people. Something a little lighter and more fun, maybe loosen up the fingers a little bit, I haven't given up on Konoha's Shining Serpent, but it's been slow going. Here's a little more fast and loose, and once I started thinking about that poor poor instructor, it was easy to write. _Not the face, not the face!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Last time on FKS: Konoha! A Desperate Attempt to Save the Village sends a Message back in time! Tenten intercepts the future intelligence, and smoothly integrates it into her childhood fantasies of being Lady Tsunade. Seeking to understand more of her strange visions and driven by a vague understanding of what is coming she enters the Academy early, her skills undeveloped but not lacking in confidence. She begins her school year as a seemingly "normal" 5 year old genius. _

-

New Academy Students all went through the same process. No matter how old, what clan, and how promising. They started in a big group in front of the Academy. Those with families or clans had representatives with them, the rest milled in a uneasy group. The Hokage walked up to the front and gave a moving little speech about the Will of Fire, and how they would become ninja who protected the future of the village. Then family bid them goodbye; the only one from the main line of a clan, an Inuzuka, had a little ceremony Tenten didn't understand, and then they walked into the building.

There the picture rapidly changed. They were split into classes by a clearly bored chuunin whose fast delivery led several hesitant kids to miss the first time their names were called. Once in groups they were led to classrooms where a teacher whose name they weren't told broke them into even smaller groups, and set them all to a series of simple tasks, arm and leg movements Tenten didn't understand the purpose of, and a review of the hand seals Tenten recognized from the Scroll of E-Rank Techniques.

She wasn't sure from their reaction whether she was doing well or poorly. Some of the clan kids seemed to have the same reaction, although most of the children just looked mystified. Some didn't even seem to have encountered the concept of hand seals before.

Then came her favorite part of the day, where they were painstakingly taught a simple jutsu to produce light. She formed the three handseals, Tiger, Bird, Dragon, and strongly intoned the words: **Hikari no Jutsu** and was rewarded by a strong glow from the center of her palms. This technique did nothing, so far as she could tell, but produce light. Looking at her classmates, she suspected it was really another kind of test. Towards the end of the session, when almost everyone had mastered the jutsu, the unnamed teacher began exhorting them to keep the light lit longer, or brighter.

After a while she started to feel a familiar sensation in her stomach and palms, a shuddering emptiness. She narrowed her eyes across the room at the teacher working with one of the slower students. This technique took a surprising amount of chakra for such a simple result. Perhaps this was also a test of stamina and chakra reserves? She would need to ensure she passed this hidden test also.

She waited until the end of the period, when all the kids had at least managed to produce something from their hands, and the teacher was almost certainly watching the kids to see who had kept practicing the Hikari no Jutsu, and how they were holding up. She walked directly up to him while he was looking elsewhere, rehearsing the motions and sensation of chakra in her head.

She had discovered something while testing the techniques from the scroll she had been given to study. When she forced more chakra than normally required to a jutsu, strange things happened. Sometimes they ceased to work, sometimes they did new things. When she was low on chakra, she often had to squeeze harder down deep in her hara to get the chakra needed, but if she imagined that squeezing now, when she still had plenty, she thought she could get a lot more into this technique.

"Sensei," she began artlessly, " I'm not sure how to get this light to be brighter..."

The teacher sighed, "You just need to be sure your hand seals are sharp and quick, and push a little more chakra into it."

She nodded once, sharply, as expected. She carefully set her feet a little apart, no sense in revealing if the low chakra made her dizzy, her purpose was to impress. She knew this was the last period of the day, and she needn't worry about holding anything in reserve. Further, Tsunade often got reports of ninjas who suffered "chakra exhaustion" and while they were sometimes ordered not to do anything for a little while, it didn't sound that serious. She would have until tomorrow to get better if anything happened. She grit her teeth and imagined the tingling pain of chakra overuse in her hands. The teacher, sensing something, swung his head over to look at her. She flashed through the seals, faster than she had ever gone in front of others; Tiger, Bird, Dragon! and she screamed her voice raw inside her mind: **Hikari no Jutsu**!

Drawn by the screams of panic, the school medic said the flash-blindness would subside in a few minutes, and the afterimages would fade in the next hour. Anyone who still had symptoms should see her before classes the next day.

-

As the week passed, things at the Academy settled into a new routine. The children who weren't from ninja families or clans gradually became used to the physical demands and early hours, as introductory material was covered the teachers settled into beginning the long, unrewarding process of cramming as much rote facts and tactics into bored kids repeatedly, with more idiosyncratic training in taijutsu, physical skills, and tool use in and outside the classroom.

Tenten didn't have any special restrictions or styles, so she focused on her general skills. Standard Leaf Taijutsu, Shuriken and Kunai throwing (which she had already shown distinction in) took up most of her non-class time, which some of the other kids split between Academy lessons and family styles, unusual weapons training, or remedial instruction in hand seals, chakra, or unfamiliar academic subjects.

As the teachers were finding out, Tenten's education was spotty at best, the orphanage had an eclectic collection of materials, and the caretakers were too busy to go into much detailed instruction. But she showed great familiarity with shinobi subjects, particularly rules and standards, and she had a fearless confidence that led her to leap forward into subjects, regardless of her own ignorance. And she would make strange leaps sometimes, concluding that this or that strategy was flawed, intuiting the existence of more powerful jutsu from weaker ones, and making accurate guesses about the workings of foreign villages, politics, and bureaucracies.

At this her teachers nodded knowingly. As a child in an orphanage, Tenten had clung to the rules and predictability of the system as comforting regularities. She had no doubt focused on ninja stories and brooded upon them as extensions of the institutional life she led, which accounted for her deep insight into the workings of groups she'd never encountered before. Her idolization of Tsunade was only natural, and not much commented upon.

She was a fierce, determined child, as was expected of the the youngest student in the Academy in the post-war period. Any attempts of other kids to pick on her in class didn't last long, as the teachers quickly disabused them of the notion, at least in their territory. But she clearly didn't have any friends, and the wary look in her eyes around her fellow students suggested she wasn't much looking to make any either.

The resentful looks of students four years older than her losing in the taijutsu spars (badly, at times) told the story. Tenten was going to have problems later, it remained to be seen if she had a plan for making it through the Academy as a loner. The teachers would wait and see, a ninja had to be able to fight their own battles, after all.

-

As the paperwork made its slow way through Konoha, instructors found time to shadow Tenten as she went through her little routines and come to the conclusion that she was a normal talented youngster, and that the notation on her jacket for possible mental instability could be laid at the feet of her relative youth for an Academy student. Her access to the Academy library was granted, and she was given a special appointment with one of the instructors the next day. Not knowing what to expect, she gathered her ninja equipment, did the best to smooth out her somewhat tattered clothes, and marched into her office prepared for anything.

-

Yuuhi Kurenai, chuunin instructor, watched the little girl stiffly walk into her office. While they were all technically the same rank, she had a growing reputation as a genjutsu mistress, and was widely expected to take the Jounin trials soon. Her participation at the academy was more focused than most instructors, as they tended to give her special cases and difficult students with more specialized skills. She was not surprised to see the tiny Tenten there, although a little surprised why.

She'd been handed a note to examine her for possible skill in fuinjutsu, a difficult field that required great dedication. Kurenai herself had some competence in it because of her genjutsu style, and natural tendency towards academic subjects, but it was dangerous to teach, so they tended to evaluate students before giving them much instruction, or leaving it up to their eventual Jounin instructors or families.

"So," she smiled at the diminutive girl, "I understand you used a sealing technique in your evaluation for entrance to the Academy?"

Tenten nodded seriously. "A Standard Storage Seal, inanimate, on a secondary scroll."

"That doesn't sound like much of a weapon..." Kurenai trailed off as she looked up the paperwork, "the full report indicates you used this to disable the Examiner?"

"I filled it as full of dirt as I could, ma'am. And threw it, enclosing him from above, to bury him."

"Hmm, not very flexible, although I suppose it would be more chakra efficient than an Earth Technique of the same size.."

"We were inside, in a small room, it limited his mobility.", Tenten shrugged. In the last few weeks, she'd learned the limitations of the strategy in comparison to real offensive jutsu.

"Do you have the Storage Seal with you?"

Tenten handed Kurenai the bedraggled scroll to examine. The seal was carefully pasted in the first third of it, although some edges had begun to fray from use, and the paper was not longer well bonded flat. Kurenai could see the seal had been transferred from something else, and didn't ask, although Tenten felt her eyes on her.

"I recognized the Seal from the Regulation Handbook, and determined what it's capacity was by experimentation at Training Ground 13".

"And have you tried to duplicate it?" Kurenai asked.

"No. I don't know how, and the materials I have don't explain anything."

"Good." Kurenai said firmly. "Fuinjutsu is very dangerous and experimentation is something you should not do until you understand the risks and procedures. I'm going to show you the process of drawing a simple seal, and the preparation for the ink. When you believe you understand, you will demonstrate for me. Then, when you go home, you may practice drawing the seal, although you may NOT ATTEMPT TO ACTIVATE IT."

Tenten, who had become very excited, tried not to jump away as Kurenai was suddenly very very loud.

"Now, since you are familiar with the Storage Seal, I am going to inscribe a basic Resistance Seal, and then you are going to attempt to activate it. First we will begin with the ink..."

Tenten paid close attention as Kurenai demonstrated. She asked no questions, but Kurenai didn't doubt she understood it all.

-

It was a month later that a very nervous Kurenai was before the Hokage to appeal for the Jounin Trials. The grandfatherly ninja was comforting to most Konohans, as his leadership had kept them successful and safe through much, although he had tried to retire six years before, his successor had not lasted much more than a year.

After making it through her request, she was treated to an uncomfortable conversation with the Sandaime, Yamanaka Inoichi (head of T&I) and Nara Shikaku(the recently appointed Jounin Commander). It was a transparent ploy to dig at her composure and get a little information from her, but she didn't dare point it out. They discussed her previous career, the balance of genjutsu and ninjutsu techniques, and some of her colleagues, before the Hokage surprised her by asking after her time at the Academy.

"I enjoy teaching, I suppose, Hokage-sama. Children tend to be very restless. It can be hard to know they understand you very well, but some show promise..."

"Indeed, the young often make things difficult for themselves." The Hokage agreed, sharing an ironic look with Shikaku. "I understand you spent some time with Tenten, the young student who so surprisingly entered while only five?"

"Ah, yes Hokage-sama, I evaluated her in fuinjutsu, as I am qualified. She is a very serious child. I have found her to be a good student."

The Hokage smiled tolerantly, "It's my understanding that her classmates might not agree with that assessment of her as a serious studious child, Kurenai-chan."

Kurenai shook her head, unconsciously defensive, "She's tiny, in a taijutsu spar she has to get a little wild or get crushed. If she's aggressive she can control the pace. They just don't like losing to a younger student, or a girl. Hokage-sama." she amended belatedly.

"And how are her fuinjutsu skills?" interjected Shikaku.

"Impressive. In a month's time she's mastered the Standard Storage and Explosive Seals, the basic Resistance and Barrier types will come soon. She needs to work on accuracy and speed, but I would be surprised if she didn't progress further. She likes seals. Her chakra control isn't amazing, and her reserves are still small, but she spends a lot of time on them. Tenten isn't asleep much..." Kurenai trailed off as she realized she'd been talking very casually of a mere Academy Student with the three most powerful ninja in the village.

"Why don't you go wait with the receptionist, while we discuss your Trials." Inoichi finally rescued her, suggesting kindly.

She walked away in relief while the three studied her.

"I would say no." Shikaku finally said. "Not yet, but very soon. She's got the skills, but she's hesitant."

"You may underestimate how intimidating we three might be to a chuunin." the Hokage chuckled.

"We should give her a chance," began the unusually quiet Inoichi, "she is the strongest genjutsu user in the village without a bloodline."

"Genjutsu, good missions record, seals, even her performance at the Academy recommends her," the Hokage mused, "the instructors were most complimentary about her short time there."

"We should ask the littlest genius what she thinks of her teacher." Shikaku said.

"Little indeed, she's only a year older than Ino." Inoichi shook his head. "I don't know what Ibiki was thinking. The war is over, we don't just need warm bodies anymore. Kumo is even talking about an alliance treaty."

"You know very well," Shikaku said, "Ibiki was thinking of those red marks on his neck, he lost to that little girl, unprepared or not. And the teacher reports are glowing, she's going to graduate in a year if she can gain enough offensive power to offset her low chakra."

"It's the slugs that interest me." the Hokage suddenly said.

"Slugs, Hokage-sama?" Even the Nara looked puzzled.

"It is said that her classmates, who might be inclined to be a little cruel to such a small girl, fear her slugs." the Hokage explained.

"Surely she can't have a Summoning Contract already!" Inoichi protested. "She isn't even a Genin yet. Who would even give it to her?"

"There are other ways to obtain animals to do your bidding," the Hokage said mildly, "I believe them to be ordinary garden slugs which she keeps in imitation of Tsunade. They may lack Katsuya's acid power, but they are strange and uncomfortable enough to a child."

"A observer for her psychological review said he saw her trying to share chakra with one." Shikaku remembered. "She may have been trying to duplicate the Inuzuka chakra infusion of dogs."

"Inventive enough for a young genius. Although unlikely to bear fruit, chakra infusion is a long road, and slugs do not live long enough for the Inuzuka process. Strange that it reassures me. I was suspicious to see such a talented young ninja arise from humble beginnings. But Tenten's troubles and wasted cleverness excuse her successes. No plant or spy would spend their time on something most adults know to be impossible."

"It's the childish refusal to adhere to the merely possible that makes a prodigy." Shikaku quoted.

"She'll graduate this year, and we'll see what is possible for her," the Hokage said, "early successes may come to less. Her chakra will always be small by clan standards, and she has no special features as of yet. As to Yuuhi, let us test her, and see what SHE may do."

The other two ninja left the Sandaime to the relative solitude of his office and ANBU escort. He looked out the window of the office he still hadn't quite accepted as his own again.

"Tsunade, your shadow grows." he said to the night. His students were gone. Orochimaru banished, Jiraiya guiltily shadowing him, Tsunade a wreck who couldn't be in the village or act as a medic without breaking down. Minato dead of a noble self-sacrifice he should have seen coming, the Uchiha withdrawing from village life, their jinchuriki a child who wouldn't be combat-ready for years. He knew Naruto, he wouldn't be a 5 year old graduate like this Tenten. Although perhaps he should take advantage of his next visit to the Orphanage to look in on her, she could be a good influence on the boy. Konoha seemed strong, triumphant in the wars, surviving the Kyuubi, but he felt weak. The next generation had not taken the flame from him yet.

"Slugs." He wondered what Tenten would amount to.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Last time on FKS: Konoha! Tenten enters the Academy, her moxie and secret knowledge compensating for her youth and lack of natural talents. She's approved for basic fuinjutsu training, certified mostly sane by her teachers, and is running down the road to early graduation. She's not very popular with the other kids, but has been holding her own with the bullies through sheer five-year-old crazy. People in the village are starting to notice her, all the way up to the Hokage.**_

* * *

Biology is inescapable. It might be strange to say, when talking about a tiny girl who is a credible threat to an adult ninja caught off guard, but Tenten was still only five years old. Chakra was a many splendid thing, it gave her strength, speed, it did what she imagined so clearly in her mind, but it did not change her nature.

Tenten was a child stuffed full of adult words and adult concepts, made manifest by chakra. But in the end just a child.

So it was perhaps not surprising that in between learning to kill with blades, to bring earth and fire under her command, to memorize full pages of documents at a glance, to harness her spiritual power, the problem she never solved was mean older kids.

One on one, in the taijutsu ring, her chakra full, she was a match for almost any student. But after school her small frame meant she recovered stamina slowly, and while she may have been the top student in almost all her classes, she was always alone. And numbers mattered, particularly when you couldn't use serious jutsu against someone, or you were taken by surprise.

So she became adept at leaving the Academy at strange times, the instant classes ended one day, the next she would stay until the last instructor kicked her out of the library. She lurked in alleys until she thought she was alone, or ran alongside disinterested groups of kids for safety.

Some days she tried her best to conserve her chakra, so when she left the Academy she could leap across roofs and fences to get home faster. Sometimes she would see other ninjas streaking across the sky like that, and she knew that no one would dare stop them, they would soar over any obstacle like black and green birds. Like she knew Tsunade could.

She learned how to apply her stealth training in a thousand different ways, silence, hiding, fast movement when you were behind solid cover, distracting and illusory jutsu in extremis. But she didn't always make it back to the Orphanage fast enough, and those days there were lessons too.

* * *

One day she was streaking home along dark side streets. She had stayed in the library until Kurenai had finally come to shoo her away.

She liked the rare occasions that she got a moment with her, Kurenai-sensei had continued to help her a little bit with seals as the year went on and made sure she was being safe. She had heard the other instructors saying that Kurenai had failed the Jounin Trials, but wasn't unhappy with her performance. Other teachers said she had done very well for her first attempt, nothing to be ashamed of. But Kurenai seemed to be in the Library a lot these days, the parts Tenten couldn't go into, so maybe she wasn't as happy as the others said.

When she went home late her priority was to avoid residential areas of Konoha as much as possible, jogging a fast little trot, her little legs pumping fast but making little sound, in a stride that ate distance without draining her too much. She might have duck down a side path at any time, or jump to a roof.

She was almost to the Orphanage when she heard the Voice.

"Where do you think you're going, you little shit?"

The Voice came in all shapes and sizes, but it was always the same. The tone managed to convey a kind of disgust at being used at all, like the speaker was lowered by even trying to communicate with you. It started low and threatening and raised in a kind of disbelieving question, no matter what was said. She knew that voice mostly from a boy named Arami, a second year who wouldn't graduate for quite a while, but at 10 years old was much taller and heavier than Tenten.

Tenten had been moved from class to class as she leapt in front of the scheduled curriculum, taking little tests to prove she knew what was going to be taught and moving to a new class that was teaching more advanced material. She sat with a motley group of kids at various times of the day, with mostly 11 and 12 year olds in the morning for the final classes on chakra theory, jutsu, and ninja rules, with younger kids in the afternoon for physical training and too use. The group she did physical conditioning and survival training with was mostly second years in the five year standard schedule, as she was too young to really build muscle, and no amount of genius or reading would teach you to skin a rabbit.

Arami had taken a dislike to her after she had left their class in Taijutsu, graduating to a final year class to teach more advanced forms and specialized training. He had protested that Tenten couldn't possibly be stronger than him and challenged her to prove it in the school ring. Instructors had formalized the challenge process, encouraging kids to test themselves against each other. Tenten quietly accepted the challenge and faced him in the ring towards the end of the day. It didn't go well for him.

* * *

"I'll show them you were moved too early, you little shrimp!", Arami laughed, waving his hands at the kids who always gathered around a challenge fight.

Tenten didn't say anything. Every fight was a risk for her. If she ever lost focus or ceased to boost with chakra it would be instantly over, her tiny frame couldn't physically match anyone else in the Academy. When freeform matches occured she could get distance with practice kunai or the stinging beanbags that marked you in red they made students throw instead of senbon and knives, but in the ring it was all Taijutsu, nothing else was fast enough.

She and Arami made the ceremonial gestures to each other that meant this was a proper Konoha match, and fell into their stances. Arami was high and stiff, meant to emphasize his height and size. Tenten just dug her toes into the ground for leverage and dropped her shoulders, no matter what happened, she would be striking upwards anyway.

Arami stepped forward quickly, sweeping his right fist in a broad strike down at her right side, it be hard to dodge completely, and with their weight difference if she were poorly anchored she would be knocked to the side even if she blocked.

Disdaining to directly respond, she leaped up above his swinging fists; smashing her right knee into his face as she went up, traveling over him as he flinched backward off his feet. The impact turned her slightly, but she still landed neatly behind and to the side of him as he fell to the ground clutching his bleeding nose on his behind with his feet in front of him.

Knowing how quickly things could change she reached out and grabbed one of his hands while he was still shocked, straightening his arm out and taking a firm grip of his wrist, which had a little blood on it, but was solid enough. She bore down on the arm as she had been taught, twisting and pressing his shoulder into the ground, his head instinctively turned to protect his nose from the impact, and he couldn't get his knees under him to get up out from under her weight.

He struggled for a while to get her knee off his arm, but eventually the instructor sighed and told him it was over.

They made their gestures and exited the ring as they were instructed, and the next time they met Arami made sure she was tired, and he had friends behind him.

* * *

She rounded the corner, with a block ready, but this time the Voice wasn't aimed at her. Through a fence she could see an older civilian man, his head pointed down where she couldn't see. He hurled insults down there at the hiding child. Tenten relaxed her fists. It wasn't her turn today, but she didn't know what to do now. The man didn't seem to be leaving, and they were very close to the Orphanage, surely someone would come soon?

Listening more she began to recognize a very particular pattern to the Voice today, one she hadn't heard before personally. A chuunin instructor once had won a draw to be an example to the students. Smiling, he had been plied with drink in anonymous white bottles, demonstrating the way his motions became jerky and fluid all at once, reciting stanzas so they could hear how his voice heard at each stage of his impairment. They memorized these changes so they could anticipate what behavior at each level of inebriation to expect in a target, and learned a great deal about the penalties for personal inebriation above the first stage in any active duty ninja, the instructor had a special exemption he took great pleasure in explaining.

This civilian was in stage four, his behavior erratic and impulsive, movements reduced but strength not impaired. Very dangerous and unpredictable, he would be aggressive in response to threats, but lack stamina. The best response would be to run, a drunk would not chase over long distances without motivation, but the hunkered child she could barely see through the fence was motionless, passive. The civilian was shouting, she recognized another pattern from that class, a self-motivating rant. The civilian was building to something, his yelling a reassuring drumbeat to himself.

Tenten tensed as she realized that the civilian was between the gate to that yard and the child. If the child had not trained, they might not be capable of getting over the fence at all, it was more than twice Tenten's height after all. The wood slats were thin but closely spaced, impossible to squeeze through and hard to climb with few cross pieces. She didn't want to watch somebody else get this too. Arami's gang cornered her sometimes, in blind street ends and against tall buildings. Out of sight and with no where to run, it always lasted longer those times. Arami would hit her carefully on the high parts of her arms, her stomach, in her legs and back. He would hit her and hit her until he was out of breath, and she couldn't move if she wanted to. And she would have to wait for him to leave.

This civilian wasn't going to do that. If she could get in there, she could draw him off, distract him, they could both run for the Orphanage. But this kid probably wouldn't know what to do. She would need to make it obvious.

* * *

The civilian was in the middle of a particularly involved harangue, more like a story than an insult, just with more bad words, when Tenten rocketed through the fence closest to him with a hiss and an explosion of wood. She tumbled into the yard like a tense little ball of fists and red clothes, leaving a hole roughly twice her size in the fence down to the ground.

She rose to her feet, now directly in front of the man, her skin unmarked but covered in splinters and dirt with the blue-white of chakra reinforcement crackling across her fists. She noted with satisfaction she had landed exactly where she wanted, leaving a big hole in the fence away from the man, stopping between the kid and him, and facing the right way.

"BULLSEYE!" she shouted to the befuddled drunk.

As he struggled to fit these events into his understanding, Tenten felt more than saw the kid dart through the fence hole she left. She thought she saw a flash of yellow hair, but no more than that. Seeing the drunk had yet to come up with a sensible response, she decided to cut her losses and jump to the nearest roof. The noise might have attracted attention after all.

Arami might come.

* * *

Tenten sat in the Library and struggled with the theory of sealing a lot. Kurenai took to glancing into the Academy student section every night at least once, more often than not to make sure the little girl got a little human interaction other than just instruction. She had heard from instructors she knew that Tenten was almost certainly going to graduate soon, she was through the mandatory material and working mostly on her combat power and specializations. Fuinjutsu was proof of her strength and potential as a ninja, although it didn't really affect the graduation test very much.

Tenten got compared a lot to other genius kids that had come before her. Hatake Kakashi was the only ninja anyone could remember having graduated at five, but it had been quite some time ago. The most recent was Uchiha Itachi. In truth, Kurenai thought the two couldn't be more different. The nine year old Uchiha genius had graduated at seven, two years ago. Although he probably could have graduated sooner, the Uchiha clan had not entered him in the Academy until he could perform a Katon jutsu they found significant. Itachi was... impressive, even for a youth. People thought he would become Chuunin soon, and his teachers were full of stories of things he had accomplished in his time at the Academy. His Taijutsu was perfect in that way the Uchiha and Hyuuga tended to be, full of smooth motions anticipating all possible attacks that long refinement had perfected in the Jyuuken and stolen experience had filled into the Uchiha style. Kurenai heard he was training partners with Shunshin no Shisui, whose legend was already growing. He was about five years older than Itachi, and had won his Chuunin rank and his nickname in a memorable series of finals bouts in Mist.

Tenten didn't have names or special abilities behind her. Her combat skills were about average for a graduating student, they were only remarkable because she was so young, fighting at such a disadvantage. Instructors speculated about her small chakra reserves being a liability in a long fight, but she'd never allowed many fights to go long. She had a kind of killer instinct people compared to Itachi's icy competence, a tendency to take spars far more seriously than other students, leaving them quickly pinned or covered in the red marks of training tools. The only ways Tenten surpassed him were shuriken technique, (he could accomplish extremely complicated feats, but her throwing technique was an art, no matter what the situation she was always on target) fuinjutsu (he had never shown any inclination), and her age. Kurenai thought between them Tenten's progress was more remarkable, coming without the tutors and secret knowledge of a Great Clan. But in the two years since his graduation, Itachi had awakened his Sharingan, and come to learn genjutsu and more Fire Techniques. With his advantages, he would likely soon surpass Kurenai herself in genjutsu, the Eyes of Misery could both pierce and cast genjutsu equally. She knew the clan was terribly invested in his growing reputation, and quite a few were indignant that a young clanless orphan would break any of his records. She had already noted several attempts to delay Tenten's graduation on psychological grounds or as a new policy of kindness.

Some instructors had even proposed bringing Itachi back to "inspire" the other students for special demonstrations. Kurenai thought it a weak cover to get him into a sparring ring with Tenten to exorcise the ghost of her superiority. But with his two years of combat experience such a thing would be very unseemly to her eyes. The truth was she wasn't sure who might have won, had they been the same age. The uncertainy gnawed at Uchiha supporters too, it seemed.

In recent full spars with instructors, Tenten had surprised many by using Explosive Notes and a tanto infused with Earth chakra, such tools were seen as too expensive for a orphan. Kurenai was one of the few who knew Tenten had painfully made them herself.

Most purchased their stock from blacksmiths and specialized ninja in the village, and their time was precious, so the products could be expensive, but simple steel tools and paper and ink were cheap. The little girl was determined to make up for her disadvantages, and fuinjutsu showed its value in her preparations. Kurenai didn't doubt the girl would be a walking armory of basic tags, notes, inscribed tools, and chakra infused ninja aids by graduation.

Other students were becoming increasingly intimidated by the little kunoichi, but the instructors were becoming more willing to pressure her in spars, knowing she would be a active duty genin soon. An adult chuunin could simply overwhelm her physically if she let them dictate the pace, so Tenten had started to get hard on the landscape, explosions, flash tags and her simple Earth jutsu evening the situation. Kurenai had been amused to see even a few instructors had started to tend to hold the spars in one of the indoor training grounds. She was sure they would deny their pride being threatened by the possibility of a loss to one of their young charges. Ibiki still hadn't entirely regained his threatening aura amongst those who knew how Tenten had qualified for the Academy.

* * *

Tenten raced across a residential roof. She knew the house to be empty at this time of day, so she took no special care to be silent, preferring speed.

She thought today might be quiet, but someone had been hiding up on a roof near the Academy, hidden by a jutsu she didn't recognize. She might not have noticed them at all, but a sudden dodge to remain out of sight to an older student walking down a nearby road had led to almost collide with him.

She knew it _was_ a him, despite the dark cloak he wore. She got a pretty good look at the lurker before she popped out of sight, leaping to the next roof. He had that stiff posture of a boy trying to look taller than he really was she was so familiar with. She hoped he had been lurking for somebody else, as soon as she was out of direct sight whatever jutsu he was using prevented her from sensing him.

Despite her own problems she knew lots of Academy students had stalkers of various kinds. Many people were interested in the next generation of ninja.

And today was a day for stalkers. Uchiha Itachi and Yamanaka Fu had visited for demonstrations. The young Uchiha clan heir was familiar to Tenten from the endless comparisons she heard from instructors who remembered his time with them two years ago, and Fu was known to Academy students as a paragon of hard work. He was only 12, but was already a chuunin, having achieved that rank in less than a year after his graduation. Rumor had it that he was already a member of a special team in ANBU that trained promising young nin.

Inevitably she had been 'randomly' picked to face them both at various times during the day of special demonstrations of ninja skills for the edification of all. Yamanaka Fu had been kind, fighting him had been like fighting a teacher, albeit one who made her dance like a puppet when she made the mistake of looking in his eyes at close range, to the laughter of many a student who disliked her. She thought Itachi had disliked her too at first, but she realized later he fought everybody that way. Even instructors came off the field with bruises and the red marks of training strikes, his bouts were almost too fast to be good training, many kids couldn't follow his movements with their eyes.

Tenten had her revenge later, though. In the late afternoon she had made sure to be in the crowd for the freeform spars, and sure enough some eager instructor had pushed her forward. Itachi had done his blankface routine, closing to win with his painfully perfect taijutsu again. She introduced him to her latest masterpiece, a double sided barrier/explosive tag whose force was only channeled in one direction. She shoved her hand at him like a palm strike and detonated it at his face, rewarded by his startled flash of red eyes (Sharingan, her mind supplied) and sudden burst of panicked speed. Even the instructors respected the force of her explosive seals.

Itachi gained distance with his longer legs and drew kunai, effortlessly blocking her followup throws, only to be given a nasty blow by a kunai she had inscribed with seals duplicating the Boulder-style Earth Release. His offhand block was not prepared for the incredible force the unimaginably heavy kunai packed when she activated it, and it tore the kunai from his hand and cut his arm. He had deflected it from the nerve cluster she had been aiming for, but it was a clear victory strike. She could have aimed at his chest with it, or followed it immediately with another kunai and he would have been dead. Itachi inclined his head at her, acknowledging the point while watching instructors gasped. She wondered uncharitably how many of them even saw her special kunai, or if they thought he was humoring her.

When he raised his head the red spinning eyes answered the question of whether he was now taking this seriously, and things went badly after that. She remembered him effortlessly separating her from her pouch of further tags, somehow disrupting her Earth Wall technique while it was still forming, and punishing close taijutsu strikes. At least he made it fast, as he always did.

* * *

As she raced down another roof, she hoped the stalker was there for Itachi and would ignore her, but vague feelings behind her made her worry they were following her. She put on a burst of speed and made for a crow's nest on a roof she had seen an ANBU hiding in once, it was empty, but she went into it anyway, curling up inside it and compressing her chakra, hoping the strange pursuer would run past.

No such luck, it looked like they could sense better than she could hide, or maybe they knew that spot. They slowed and began to approach, she still couldn't see them well behind that jutsu, but the strange mask they wore wasn't real ANBU markings. Her suspicion it was another kid grew. Maybe Arami was using a jutsu to look taller? Her chakra seemed undisturbed, but she didn't know everything about genjutsu. At least he was alone. It was time to put her latest plan into action.

The one Hyuuga student and a few Uchiha instructors had taught her that a single trick with any chakra in it could never be relied upon, but if she had to guess, she bet the stalker hadn't seen her use this one yet, and it didn't use chakra at all. She waited for the stalker to get close, making sure the mask had real eye-holes and not lenses, and tossed it underhand, quick, right for the eyes. Just as she hoped he swatted casually at the little object, which looked just like a bit of wood you might grab off the ground, she even stooped before the throw as if to pick it up, to sell it. A quick throw was Academy standard to test your opponent, and maybe get them to burn whatever move they had readied on a meaningless projectile.

It was some of her best work with chemicals so far. In the Library she had found a glue recipe that let her bond woody bits together for the illusion of solidity. So many ninja relied on the glow of active jutsu or seals, even the natural chakra of intense organic poisons or chemicals, this was just a thin shell of wood held together by natural glues, filled with the finest charcoal dust she could sift. As soon as it hit his hand it exploded with surprising force, the black dust instantly filling his one visible eye. She knew it burned like fire, but worked its way in like invisible fingers. The dust was so fine it actually repelled the watery tears it provoked, preventing them from washing them away. The first time she tested it she actually had to run and dunk her head completely underwater to get the burning to stop.

The stalker froze, trying some kind of jutsu she couldn't understand, before coughing and scrabbling at his mask with his left hand. Now for the next step.

"STUPID, BIG-UGLY..." Tenten started to scream, pelting the dark cloaked figure with more charcoal bombs mixed with rocks. She couldn't injure a fellow student seriously, if that's who it was, but she needed them angry. The stalker flinched from the volume (or the smoke and rocks) and drew a real kunai to block anything new. She threw her final rock obliquely, hoping to score a bounce hit from behind him, before turning and running.

Fear and chakra gave her wings, she blazed down a path she had memorized before, backwards glances saw the stalker finish rubbing at his eyes, replace his mask, and vanish from sight, his stealth jutsu or whatever.

Longer legs meant faster top speed, which she was counting on. He should overtake her soon, and she started down and alley-way, stopping to look fearfully back around a corner. She kept looking down the narrow street, so she didn't see the masked man materialize behind her without a sound. His visible eye was still clenched tight in a painful squint.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, however, she put her plan into action. Her hand resting on the wall blazing with sudden chakra. She activated the array she had painstakingly inscribed over the last few weekends. The man's eye blazed red with the Sharingan he had dropped in pain earlier, and she thought she might be in trouble, but then it cleared to show a dark brown, and she relaxed.

The man had been advancing on her, but he stopped in puzzlement, one hand moving back to his face as if to touch his cheek through the mask. Tenten bared her teeth in snarl like a baby weasel, more squeak than growl. "Chakra Draining Seal Trap, Successful!" she said triumphantly.

She drew the real kunai she kept inside her jacket for emergencies, and prepared to throw to disable. She had found that while she depended on chakra to compete physically, older kids came to rely on it much more, especially for their combat techniques. But she could throw and use a kunai just fine without chakra, so removing it completely made things much better for her. A Chakra Draining Seal was meant to be applied directly to people on restraints or painted directly on, but in experimenting she found they still drained a little chakra from a distance away, and they didn't interfere with each other in groups at all. So she just drew thousands of them, really the whole alley was covered in Chakra Draining Seals, all linked to the same trigger array, and covered with loose dirt and rubbish, carefully replaced after each session.

She had never activated the whole thing before, and she was a little disturbed to feel it wasn't just draining chakra she tried to mold, but it seemed to be eating away at her internal chakra pools as well. Maybe she better not stay in here. She fired a warning shot, a kunai to the shoulder, and started to back away towards the mouth of the alley.

"You better stay away, Creepy Cloak-san!" she warned. "I'll turn you into a metal hedgehog!"

But he didn't seem to hear her. He took the kunai directly to the shoulder without flinching or dodging, and took an unsteady step, before she was grossed out to see white goo seeping out from underneath his cloak. Maybe he had a storage seal with chemicals in it, the drain could have made it fail, she reasoned, as she lowered the kunai to watch, fascinated.

He managed one more shaky step towards her before he collapsed in a heap of fabric, the strange white goo squishing out from under him. He reached up and pushed his hood out of his face to peer at her from behind his creepy mask.

"You surprised Itachi-kun too." he mused in an odd voice. "I should not be surprised to be caught like this."

"Whatever, mister stalker person! You better leave me alone, or I'll kunai the crap out of your stupid mask!"

"I will be free of this little trap of yours soon, little kunoichi.", he grumbled. "I cannot be stopped by seals or techniques. They are nothing before these eyes."

He raised his head, and she saw his Sharingan eye spin again, seeming to morph blacker and more angular, before it failed again to brown and he flinched, she could feel the hungry pressure of the array all around them, eating and eating, they glowed a little bit as they increased the drain upon him, but only a few hundred of the seals seemed strained, they were so many more the drain on her hardly changed. She quickened her steps towards the edge of the alley.

"I don't even know you, Uchiha-stalker, and I don't want to!" she threw a kunai into his leg for emphasis. "Stay away from me!"

More white goo fountained from the hole made in his cloak, and the person seemed to grimace behind his mask. "I am Uchiha Madara, child, I am a force of nature, I will erase this pathetic village and its annoying little kunoichi with it. My Mangekyou Sharingan is without peer, there is nothing you can do."

"No you're not." Tenten shook her head.

"I am Madara," he insisted. "You should recognize the Mangekyou, if nothing else, they still teach the history of this village."

"You're too short!" Tenten objected. "I can read! Uchiha Madara was like, the most famous shinobi ever, and he was tall, over six feet. It's in all the books. You're more like five seven, maybe more with your goo pants or whatever."

"I teleported into this alley, an unearthly display of Space-Time Ninjutsu!"

"I was looking the other way, I figured you just Body Flickered in, or ran."

"If I'm not Uchiha Madara, how would I have his techniques, his fearsome Mangekyou Doujutsu?" he challenged.

"Uh, maybe because you copied them? With the Sharingan? There's like a hundred of you guys around." she rolled her eyes. "Just leave me alone!"

Abandoning this unproductive argument with a five year old girl, the purported Madara, finding his legs still useless, began to crawl towards her. She loosed another kunai in the ground in front of him, drawing him up short.

"I'm telling you to leave me alone, go bother Itachi or whatever!"

"I cannot let you leave, little kunoichi" he said steadily. "I have plans for this village."

It was at this moment that Tenten realized that this stalker might actually be more than just a problem for her, and so she flared her chakra in an emergency signal all students were taught in case something was happening. She was a little distance away from the school, but hopefully somebody would still bother to come.

As it happened, Kurenai was nearby and recognizing the chakra, rushed over to see what could be happening to her sometime student. Arriving on the scene in a flare of reddish fall leaves, she took in the sight: Tenten was in tears, a slowly fracturing and failing seal array surrounding a man on the ground near her, who was wearing the tatters of a dark cloak, covered in white goo and hundreds of kunai. The man was saying something dark and threatening to Tenten and crawling slowly towards her, who was clutching her last kunai and on the verge of bolting.

"Just what the hell is going on here!?" Kurenai finally demanded.

* * *

Once it became clear who the silent prisoner Yuuhi Kurenai had brought into custody was, some very intense and sudden questioning of Hatake Kakashi, several Uchiha clan members, and other people who knew the supposedly dead Uchiha Obito led to his imprisonment under heavy guard and chakra suppressor drugs. Kurenai suggested he also be fitted with Chakra Draining Seals, saying they had been useful during his apprehension. The ANBU in charge shrugged, and had called for a chuunin with expertise, at which point Kurenai simply made them herself.

After interrogation by Yamanaka Inoichi revealed the depth of depravity and doujutsu Obito had achieved in his time as a putative missing-nin, Kurenai was cited twice, for his arrest, and for her forward thinking initiative in his restraint, as his altered biology might have allowed him to circumvent the drugs. Further interrogation, revealing his involvement in the death of the Fourth Hokage, the control of the Kyuubi, and several plots against the village yet undetected.

Shimura Danzo, the Uchiha clan elders, and other people implicated by intelligence found in his interrogations were quietly downgraded in security status until their culpability could be established.

The details, and his status as a prisoner were immediately classified far beyond what a mere chuunin like Kurenai could know, so she never officially heard any more about the subject, although it had a few side effects, some of which she didn't connect immediately.

* * *

Anko waited until the Hyuuga left the room before grabbing Kurenai's arm and dragging her into a corner.

"Okay cutie, spill it. That's the second damn one of those stiff-necked bastards whose been treating you respectfully. What's your secret?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean, Mitarashi-san", Kurenai said piously. "Proper manners are their own reward."

"That's some bullshit chuunin-chan. Even I know fucking manners don't work like magic. I saw Uchiha Itachi FLINCH when he saw you yesterday, what the fuck have you been into? Are you on a special team like they say? Did you even really fail your first Jounin Trial?"

"I'm just a simple chuunin, Anko, I don't know how those ANBU special teams rumors get started."

"Uh, maybe because a "simple chuunin" doesn't get to retry her Jounin Trials immediately after failing them for the first time? I heard you did well the first time, but that's just damn weird."

"I have been working very hard."

"And that's another thing! What 'simple chuunin' meets with the Hokage twice in a week? And the door guards said they heard him laughing for twenty minutes yesterday with you in there. Who gets chummy with the Hokage like that?"

"He's a very charming man Anko, grandfatherly, really."

"You're mocking me? It's not natural!"

"You would know best sempai."

"Argh!"

* * *

Graduation was uneventful, at least. Just a test involving skills she had mastered already, another spar, and she had her headband and a number. She got her long awaited access to more of the Library, a picture, and some more materials. As a Genin, she was moving out of the Orphanage to the barracks, a definite upgrade. Now, a week later, she was to meet her team.

..."Mozuku, Inuzuka Hana, Tenten"

It was kind of funny, Tenten thought, as she exchanged measuring looks with her new teammates. Stick the princess with two orphans.

Mozuku was a student distinguished mostly for his control and sensitivity. Tenten had heard him discussed as a possible Sensor-type or medical ninja. He was what was now the normal age for Academy graduation, 12 years old. He towered over Tenten, but she knew he was only average for his age. She recognized him from a bunch of older kids at the orphanage, but they hadn't really interacted before now.

Hana was a different story. 11 years old, she was graduating a year earlier than expected, first daughter of the current Inuzuka clan head. Despite their wild reputation, the Inuzuka were cornerstones of the village strength, not so individually intimidating as Hyuuga or Uchiha, or so remote as the Aburame or the vanishing Senju, Inuzuka were everywhere in Konoha, ninja and civilian, their face markings a complex language within the clan, but just a reassuring identifier to Konoha at large. An Inuzuka was loyalty incarnate. A strange one might start a fight, but a familiar one would defend you to the death.

They were also the only major clan currently headed by a woman, Hana's mother Inuzuka Tsume, a combat focused kunoichi famous for her intimidating presence, she was still an active ninja despite her clan duties.

"You three will be Team Two, under Hyuuga Hizashi. He will be here soon to pick you up. You are now under his command."

The three exchanged glances. Everybody knew Hizashi of the famous Hyuuga clan. He was one of the strongest ninja they even knew were on active duty. He was taking a genin team? It made a kind of sense they would give Hana to him, but the two orphans? Tenten couldn't imagine what the reasoning there was, while her two teammates looked speculatively at the tiny girl who had graduated in a single year.

* * *

**A/N**:** Dun dun dunnn! I swear this all works out. Neji is four right now, and in canon his dad won't sacrifice himself for another six months to a year. We know he was a Jounin. As for Tobi, he's fucking scary, but his Zetsu/Hashirama prosthetics depend on mokuton techniques and chakra, take that away, and he kind of dissolves into a mostly crippled dude who will probably die without medical intervention. The seals were inactive when he jumped into the alley, so he wouldn't see the chakra, and he dropped the Sharingan almost immediately because of all the charcoal dust. Going intangible didn't help him much because it was already grinding into his eyes.**


End file.
